The judges stated that selection was made based on the sheer number of people who’s lives could be changed through deployment of VNL’s technology.

“This is a real breakthrough, with potential, huge impact for billions of people in rural villages. It could have significant impact in allowing rural communities to have access to affordable mobile communications,” they said.

We spoke to Rajiv Mehrotra, Founder, Chairman & CEO of VNL just before the Awards have been announced.

He talked about VNL’s zero-opex solar-powered WorldGSM base station developed specifically for use in rural areas where people have less than US$2 a month to spend on their phone bills.

Watch the interview with the CEO of VNL that is the first and only company to have found a way of building sustainable telephone networks for the three billion people (half the world’s population) who live in rural areas not covered by a mobile network.